“In remembrance of the departed” – Humility & Models IV

Chamber Music

Wednesday, 19 July 2023
7.30 pm, Lauenen Church

It is sufficiently rare, even among the new generation, to be presented with original biographical texts not to quote the first lines found on the website of the young Arod Quartet. “So what is this Arod? A forgotten composer, a mythical city, a mysterious motto? Not at all. The Arod Quartet has chosen as its patron a horse imagined by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings. A symbol of strength and ardour (the name means “agile, swift”), it also embodies a spirit of freedom and companionship since it is ridden bareback, without reins, by the elf Legolas. This string ensemble was formed in 2013 at the Paris Conservatoire. All members of the Quartet studied there, benefiting in particular from the teaching of Jean Sulem.” For their debut in Gstaad, the four partners, who are also connected by their beautiful 18^th-century Italian instruments, have chosen a quartet by Shostakovich – the Third – written in the aftermath of the Second World War, in which the Russian composer pays homage to the people of the working classes and “to the memory of the deceased” (to quote the title of the fourth movement).